


Raising Clary

by FairClary (ahopelessromantic)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Clary Fray & Alec Lightwood Friendship, De-aged Clary, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Humor, M/M, Magic, Magnus Bane & Clary Fray Friendship, Parents Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Sometimes angst, Sort Of, Warlocks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-02-12 17:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12964341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahopelessromantic/pseuds/FairClary
Summary: An incident while chasing down a rogue warlock leaves Clary de-aged to about five and with no memories of her true self. Somehow Magnus and Alec end up being the ones to care for her and getting a taste of domestic family life while the others try to find a way to fix it.





	1. Troublesome Warlocks

**Author's Note:**

> My first forey into Shadowhunters and into Malec, though this story is probably going to be fairly Clary centric since I adore her but Malec will be pretty much hand in hand with the entire storyline so it probably won't affect anything anyway lol.
> 
> If you enjoy, please comment or if you don't want to comment, please drop a kudos. I'd be super grateful :)

 

Chapter One

It had been a long day at the Institute and Clary thought she was finally free to have some alone time with Jace. The two of them were half-naked and kissing on her bed when Alec’s voice effectively killed the mood. “Jace, Fray, we’ve got a mission. Whatever you’re doing will have to wait”. Jace groaned but rolled off Clary and the two of them dressed in their standard black outfits before meeting the others in the main room. Izzie and Alec were already stood by the rectangular table and discussing something when the two of them emerged.

“Alec, what’s the big emergency?” Jace demanded, knowing that for a sudden mission to crop up at that time of night with no prior warning that it had to be an emergency.

“The Clave got word that there’s a warlock experimenting on mundanes over in Queens. Clary, can you make us a portal to get us over to the old, empty offices that she’s using as her ‘lab’?”

“I’m on it”. Clary pulled out her stele and painted a portal rune in the air. The others watched as a portal opened in the room and grabbed their weapons.

“I’ll go through first”, Alec ordered, ever the protector, wanting to ensure that the portal wasn’t about to take them directly to the warlock. He disappeared through and Izzie was quick to follow suite with her whip at the ready. Jace pulled Clary through with him, holding her hand. The portal closed behind them and Clary noticed that it had taken them to an empty, dusty room that was probably one of the old offices that was in the building but not being used by the warlock.

“She’s nearby. We should split up. Jace you go with Izzie, I’ll stick with Fray”.

Jace wanted to protest but Alec gave him a look that made him think again. He’d deliberately split them up, knowing that Jace wasn’t exactly impartial when it came to the red head but he knew Alec would have her back as he did everyone else. Jace disappeared with Izzie out of the room and down the left side of the corridor while Alec and Clary turned right.

“So how are things with you and Magnus?” Clary whispered, trying to make conversation as they peered into each room that they passed.  Normally she didn’t mind silence overly much but this place was quiet, dark and abandoned which totally creeped her out.

“None of your concern”, he retorted but with no sting to his voice. Clary rolled her eyes, knowing that her dynamic with Alec was always going to be somewhat like an irritated older sibling that wanted nothing more than to get rid of the pesky kid sister. She opened her mouth to make her own smart response when they saw a light flash in one of the rooms up ahead. Exchanging a look, Alec prepared his bow and arrow while Clary grabbed her sword from its sheath.

 They moved forwards and the archer kicked in the door, letting off an arrow of warning that sailed past the slivery haired warlock’s head and stuck in the wall behind her. “Surrender by order of The Clave”.

The warlock paid no attention to his words, merely rolling her eyes. “I don’t answer to The Clave”.

“You’re experimenting with mundanes, you’re breaking the accords”, Clary pointed out, staring at the unconscious young blonde mundane woman laid out on the exam table that she had set up.

“You think I care for the accords, child? I’ve been around longer than the accords existed”, she scoffed, looking at the two Shadowhunters with scorn in her eyes. “The Clave may think they rule our world but I am not the only one who refuses to answer to those that treat us downworlders as nothing but filthy animals”.

“Nevertheless”, Alec stepped forward, holding his bow up to her so that she could see that he meant business. “Stop now and you don’t need to get hurt. We ARE taking you in, warlock”.

“You can’t stop this now, shadowhunter”, the warlock cackled, her magic suddenly going crazy and wrapping a bubble around both her and the mundane. “It’s too late”. Alec and Clary looked at each other and began their attack. The dark haired shadowhunter tried to shoot her with his arrows but each one was magically moved around the bubble instead of through it, ending up buried in the wall behind the warlock. Clary went to try to break with her sword but ended up bouncing off the bubble and flying onto the floor.

“Shit”, Alec helped Clary to her feet and the two of them watched in horror as the mundane girl disappeared from the table at the same time the warlock seemed to absorb the entire bubble.

“What did you just do to her?!” Clary exclaimed as Alec took another shot with his bow now that the weird magic bubble had vanished, the bow making contact with the warlock’s arm and piercing it deeply. She yelped from the pain but still had a smug smirk on her face.

“I’ve finally been successful and I won’t let you take me in now after all of my hard work”, the warlock’s hands began to glow with magic as she turned on them, preparing to attack.

Alec went to raise his bow again but found it levitated out of his hands and flung against the wall behind him. Clary charged towards her with her sword, preparing to cut the warlock’s hands off if she had to, when she was frozen mid-run. Alec tried to move but found he was also held in place. Fuck, where was Jace and Izzie when he needed them? They most have ended up on the opposite side of the building or further.

“Wait a minute, aren’t you Valentine’s little girl?” the warlock eyed her closely before giggling. “You are! I was quite fond of your father’s ambition. Not too fond of his goals I must say but the man certainly had more balls than The Clave”, she mused. “I’d say it must have been terrible finding out you were the man’s daughter. What shame you must have felt. I bet you would have loved to have a loving father but instead you got stuck with a man who was willing to kill his own child to get what he wanted”.

Clary glared, mentally trying to struggle out of the magical bind but physically she could not move an inch. “Don’t worry little girl”, oh how she hated that name. “You’ll get exactly what you deserve”.

Alec stared helplessly as the warlock muttered something and shot Clary with her magic. She didn’t give him time to see what she’d done to her before turning to him. “You’re the one dating the High Warlock of Brooklyn aren’t you? So unusual for a shadowhunter. Yes, I’ve done my research don’t be so surprised. I knew there was a chance that someone would discover me here”.

“You knew we were coming”.

“Suspected. I never leave anything to chance. Your other friends are being kept quite busy with one of my little pets right now”.

So that’s why Jace and Izzie hadn’t come running at the sound of a fight breaking out or the worry that Jace must have felt through the parabatai bond.

“What did you do to the mundane?” Alec demanded, seeing as he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and hoping that he could kept the warlock talking until Jace and Izzie could get to them.

“Don’t worry, the mundane is alive and well”.

“Where is she?”

“Right here”, Alec stared in alarm as the warlock patted her stomach. “You ate her!?”

“No, dear. I’m carrying her”.

“…what?!” Just when he thought things couldn't get weirder.

“You see I heard about the wonderful work my old friend Iris has been doing. I admired her ambition of producing more warlocks since our numbers are dwindling dramatically, unfortunately, in part due to dear old Valentine and because we cannot naturally reproduce ourselves. However I wanted to find a way to create more warlocks without the use of a human carrier and a demon because as much as I admire Iris’ cause, rape is well….tacky to say the least. Anyway, I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of dark magic for a while now and I finally found a way to cut out the demon from the process but unfortunately I still needed the use of a mundane. The magic would, if successful, de-age the human into foetal form and transfer it into my womb. My blood and magic will then result in the baby being born again as a warlock. Rebirth quite literally, my dear”.

“Is the spell reversible?” Alec glared at her, feeling horrified for what the mundane woman had just been forced through, though he didn’t think she’d still remember any of this when she was reborn into the world.

“I’m afraid not”, the warlock smirked.

“You might think you’ve won but we’ll hunt you down and you’ll face justice for your crimes”.

“I’m sure you’ll try, dear” she crooned, just as Jace’s voice came bellowing down the hall outside.

“Clary! Alec!”

“Oh that’s my cue to leave. See you later, pretty boy”. The warlock opened a portal and stepped through while Alec could only watch with frustration. As soon as she was gone, he was freed from her magic at the same time Jace and Izzie barged into the room.

Jace glanced around the room and frowned when he saw no sign of the warlock. “What the hell happened here?”

“And where’s Clary?” Izzie asked worriedly.

“Shit, the warlock did something” Alec turned and glanced over to Clary’s spot on the floor, his eyes widening at what he saw. “By the angel!”

“Clary!” Jace dropped down to the floor and rolled her over, concern for his girlfriend all over his face. “What happened to her? Why is she…?”

“A child?” Izzie finished, looking over at her brother.

“The warlock did something to her and now she’s gone.  She had me frozen in place, I couldn’t do anything”.

“We need to get her to the Institute”, Jace said as he picked her small body up easily.

“No we should go to Magnus. He might be able to fix her”, Alec suggested. “And I’m not sure that the Institute would be the best place for her like that. We don’t know what she remembers”.

“Magnus it is then”. The group were forced to find an alternative way back to Brooklyn since their resident portal maker was currently a child and currently knocked out. Izzie haled them a Taxi and used some money that she had left in the pocket of her leather jacket. They got out and made their way up to the floor of the building that Magnus’ apartment was located on. Jace went ahead before Alec and Izzie and began to bang loudly and repetitively on the door as though panic for his girlfriend was beginning to get to him.

The door opened and Magnus stood in front of them with a slight glare on his face. “For a moment there I thought there was a Gorilla knocking on my door but it’s good to know it’s just you. Hello, Alexander”, his face visibly softened at the sight of his boyfriend standing behind Jace. “What trouble have you gotten yourselves into now?” He gestured for them to enter and they followed him into his living room. He didn’t register the presence of small Clary until Alec explained upon entering the living room.

“There was a warlock and long story short she shot Clary with some magic and now she’s…like that”.

Magnus’ eyes fell upon Clary, who remained asleep in Jace’s arms. “Please tell me that you can reverse this”, the blonde pleaded.

The warlock got up and waved his hands over the child. The frown on his face didn’t bode well for Jace. “I’m afraid that whatever spell this is, it can only be undone by the warlock who cast it or until it wears off. There is nothing that I can do to reverse it, I’m afraid”.

“What do we do with her in the meantime?” Izzie worried. “We can’t take her to the Institute like this and we don’t know what she’ll remember when she wakes up”.

“It’s not like we can give her to Luke to take care of. There’s no way that she can live with a pack of wolves”, Jace added without taking his eyes off Clary.

Magnus stared at the little red haired girl and tried to ignore the pang of longing that suddenly hit him. “For now, Biscuit can stay here with me until we find out how much she remembers or until you find the warlock”.

Alec raised an eyebrow at him in surprise. “You’re really going to take care of the child version of Fray?”

“Yes, is there a problem with that Alexander?”

“No, I’m just surprised is all. I’ll stay and help you take care of Clary since this was partially my fault this happened to her”.

His sister stared over at him. “How is it your fault?”

“I led us there, the warlock knew we were coming and was prepared for us and I couldn’t protect Clary. That’s on me”.

“I don’t agree with your assessment but I would appreciate your help”, Magnus’ answered, a fond smile on his face. “It will make good practice”.

“Good practice?” Alec almost choked out while Izzie bit back her giggle. Jace continued to start helplessly at the kid version of his girlfriend and hoped that this would wear off sooner rather than later.

 

* * *

 

It was approximately an hour before little Clary opened her eyes. Jace had gone back to the Institute with Izzie to report on what had happened with the warlock and make a start on tracking her down while Alec stayed with Magnus at his apartment.  After placing Clary onto a kid size bed that Magnus had conjured up into one of the guest rooms, they sat beside each other just talking until she woke up. “I think she’s rousing”, Alec pointed out, cutting Magnus off mid-way through his story about the time that he’d gone for drinks with Oscar Wilde.

“Hey there Biscuit”, the warlock cooed gently at the dazed looking girl. Her green eyes fluttered towards him and a slightly sleepy smile appeared on her face.

“Daddy”.

There was silence for a moment before Alec asked the obvious. “Did…did she just call you daddy?”

Little Clary’s attention turned to Alec and she yawned out “Papa, what's going on?”.

“I think I may need to have another look at what that warlock did”, Magnus frowned and gently placed his hands onto Clary’s head. His magic soothed her back to sleep as he closed his eyes and took a quick peek into her mind. He pulled out a few minutes later, looking both confused and concerned.

Alec took one look at his face and had to know what he’d found. He might not always get on with Clary but he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her either. “What is it? What did she do to her?”

“It seems that our powerful little warlock didn’t just de-age Clary by a good ten to fourteen years but she also implanted completely fake memories into her head. She seems to believe that we are her parents and have been raising her since she was a baby. She has no recollection of her real life”.

Alec stared at his boyfriend in disbelief. “Wait Clary thinks that I’m…we’re her dads?”

“Apparently. There’s not much I can do until we can get hold of the warlock or until the magic fades off and reverses Clary back to her normal self. For now, it looks like we’re going to have to play happy families”.

“I better call Jace and let him know that things just got a lot more complicated”.

 

 


	2. The First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus' first day as Clary's 'dads'. Jace is not happy by a new development. More info on the warlock is uncovered and Clary is a sweet kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the nice comments guys! :) hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Two

“So what are we supposed to do with her?” Alec asked Magnus, joining him on his sofa for a night cap that his boyfriend claimed was much needed after the events of that night. While he sipped on a margarita, Alec had a cold bottle of beer as they settled down. He’d just rung Jace and caught him up on the latest update on Clary before following Magnus into the living area.

“Well we feed her and give her attention like any other child I suppose” was the warlock’s answer and Alec looked at him flatly.

“I mean do we tell her the truth? That we’re not really her parents?”

“Absolutely not, Alexander! Clary’s just a child right now, she wouldn’t understand if you tried to tell her the truth that she’s actually a nineteen year old woman with a boyfriend and her real parents are both dead with one of them being a mass murdering psycho”.

The shadowhunter was almost offended that Magnus thought he’d drop all of that on a kid, even if that kid was Clary. “Well I wouldn’t say it like that, I only meant the part where we’re not actually her dads”.

“And what good would that do?” Magnus pointed as he sipped his drink with as much elegance as the member of the royal family.

“I don’t know but this situation is all kinds of weird. I mean we’re supposed to treat Fray like our daughter? She’s Fray”.

“As adorable as the child I remember her being when her mother first brought her to me”. Magnus didn’t seem to notice that Alec was beginning to freak out a little about the situation. The moment that she had woken up and called him ‘papa’ was both one of the most bizarre and unexpected things that had ever happened in his life up to now.

“You aren’t bothered at all by this?”

“Of course I am, Alexander. Clary and Jace have been through enough already, now this is just one more thing in their way. However, it’s not Clary’s fault that the warlock got some twisted idea in her head to mess with all our lives like this. We just have to go with it until a solution is found”.

“You think that we’ll be able to fix this?” Alec asked, having secretly begun to worry that maybe the situation was permanent and they would be stuck with a child Clary. Jace wouldn’t let him hear the end of it.

“Of course. Like I said, we just need to find the warlock who did this. The magic will wear off eventually, even if it takes the warlock’s death”.

The taller man could have groaned as a thought occurred to him. “We’re screwed if that’s what it takes and The Clave don’t want the warlock’s death after interrogation”.

* * *

 

The next morning, Alec was awoken by a small lump jumping over his body and he blearily blinked open an eye to see a small ginger child grinning down at him toothily. The events of the previous night came rushing back to him all at once and he had to refrain himself from cursing that it wasn’t just a weird nightmare of some sort. “Morning daddy, morning papa”, she giggled bouncing all over the bed. Magnus waved a hand and froze Clary in place using his magic.

“Morning Biscuit. Are you hungry? Daddy can get you some pancakes all the way from France”. Alec was relieved when Magnus got out of the bed and took Clary by the hand, leading her from the bedroom and into the kitchen where he would probably conjure up the promised pancakes. Alec quickly got out of the bed and dressed himself into some jeans and a black shirt that he’d left in one of the spare drawers that his boyfriend had gifted to him and joined them in the kitchen where Magnus greeted him with a coffee.

“Papa, are we going to train today?” Clary blinked up as Alec sat down across from her, his expression one of a deer-caught-in-the-headlights from the sudden attention from kid Fray. He was not equipped to handle the sudden acquisition of a child, especially not one that was the child version of Clary.

“Err…we train?”

“Of course, Papa”, the girl looked at him as though he’d said something extremely stupid. “We always train on Wednesdays”.

Alec frowned and wanted to say something but stopped at the look that Magnus shot him. Right, they were supposed to be playing along with the whole thing. “Okay we can train down at the Institute after breakfast”. Apparently she knew of the shadowhunter world and everything else as though she really had been brought up with Magnus and Alec as her parents.

“Yay! Can I see Uncle Jace?”

 _Uncle_ Jace? Yeah Jace was not going to like this at all. He’d just recovered from the whole brother fuck up and now this. He’d probably kill the warlock with his bare hands.

“Here’s your pancakes, Biscuit. And some for you, Alexander, you need your energy”. Magnus put a plate of conjured pancakes down in front of both him and Clary before getting his own food and sitting beside Clary.

After breakfast, Alec as promised took Clary down to the Institute after texting Izzy to warn her ahead of time, and hopefully so that she could keep other people from asking too many questions. While they were gone, Magnus was going to use the time to try and help track down the rogue warlock with whatever tracking spells he could muster up and a bit of lingering magic that he’d scraped from Alec’s leather jacket.

“Papa?” Clary was walking down the street of Brooklyn clutching onto Alec’s hand tightly and looking up at him with a curious expression on her little face, green eyes sparkling inquisitively. He hated to admit it but the little girl was actually really cute.

“What?” When a couple of passers by almost knocked into her, Alec picked her up and placed her onto his shoulders making her giggle with delight.

“How come some people are mean to Daddy?”

“What do you mean?” Alec asked stiffening.

“Some people from The Clave call him a nasty demon but Daddy’s not nasty at all. He’s the nicest Daddy on the planet!”

Alec suddenly wished that someone else was with him because how was he supposed to explain shadowhunter-downworlder prejudice to a child? Especially one as innocent seeming as Clary.  “That’s because some people don’t like what they don’t understand and those people don’t know Mag-Daddy like we do” he explained softly, hoping that would be a good enough answer for her.

“Those people are stupid butt-heads!” Clary declared causing him to almost drop her in surprise.

Though he was sure he was supposed to censure her for her language, he ended up agreeing with Fray amusedly. “You’re not wrong”.

Predictably when the two of them arrived at the Institute, Jace immediately appeared and little Clary jumped down from Alec’s shoulders to make a beeline for him. “Uncle Jace!”

The kid’s greeting put such a comically hilarious expression on his parabatai’s face that Alec had to stifle his laughter. Jace glared at him almost as though he was blaming him for these new circumstances with his girlfriend. “Hi Clary, how’ve you been? Have _Daddy_ and _Papa_ been treating you right?”

“Of course silly”, she snorted before running back over to Alec’s side and he placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her in place. He didn’t need her running right into someone outside of their inner circle and risk tipping off the higher ups.

“Oh good you’re here!” Izzy appeared from upstairs, dressed in a black sports bra and leggings with her hair in braids. Clearly she had been training before their arrival. “We need to talk”, she said, addressing Alec.

“Jace, will you be able to train with Clary for a while?” Alec asked the blonde who nodded. “Clary stay with Jace until I’m finished with Izzie and then I’ll come train with you, okay?”

Clary didn’t look happy that his attention was being diverted elsewhere but she latched herself onto Jace seamlessly. “Let’s go train Uncle Jace”. He winced at being called ‘Uncle’ for the second time but scooped her up and carried her towards the training room upstairs. Alec watched them disappear before following Izzie towards her bedroom where she immediately shut the door to offer them privacy.

“We got some intel on the warlock” The older of the two didn’t think it was good news judging from the look on his sister’s face. “I managed to get a tip from another warlock who was apparently screwed over by our girl a few decades ago. Her name is Eda and she’s apparently over a thousand years old, having managed to evade the Clade’s radar for most of those centuries until now. She must be losing it in her old age or she’s convinced that she’s untouchable since she hasn’t bothered cloaking herself recently”.

“If she thinks she’s untouchable that could make her dangerous. Not that she wasn’t already”, he responded, sitting down on the edge of his sister’s bed.

“My source also tells me that Eda has been desperate to have children of her own after all of her other babies died at birth or she miscarried”.

“Because warlocks can’t have their own children”, Alec nodded, knowing that much from Magnus.

“It’s partly why she’s been so desperate to have success with her experiments and why she’s stopped caring about her magic exposing her to The Clave. She was prepared to do just about anything to have her own full blooded warlock baby that was all hers”.

“Even if it meant harming mundanes and using them as lab rats”.

“Exactly”, Izzie nodded.

“That doesn’t explain why she did what she did to Clary”, Alec frowned. “And why she decided to give her fake memories of me and Magnus being her dads”.

“Yeah that part we’re still looking into but we got more than we thought we would in just a day”.

The male shadowhunter paused thoughtfully as something just occurred to him. “Do you think the magic that she used to de-age Clary is the same she used on the mundane?”

“I don’t know but we’ll figure it out. How’s Magnus handling all this?”

Alec snorted and folded his arms. “Better than me”.

“I don’t know, Clary seemed pretty attached to you when you got here so you must be doing something right” Izzie smiled knowingly.

“Well I definitely get on better with little Clary than normal Clary” he retorted with a smile.

“Oh I don’t know why you don’t just admit that you like her”, his sister said rolling her eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

After joining Jace and Clary in the training room and sparring with the child for a while – who was surprisingly good despite not having her real memories - , Alec took her back to Magnus’ place where they found the warlock frowning in concentration as he sat meditating on the sofa. “Hey Magnus…what are you doing?” The warlock snapped his eyes open and smiled in greeting at his lover and their pseudo ‘daughter’.

“I was just hoping that I could use the warlock’s magic and try to connect with her telepathically but it seems there was not enough magic left on your jacket, Alexander. I’m afraid I’m going to need more if I’m going to track her down”.

 “What warlock?” Clary asked and the two men exchanged looks. Clearly this was not the time to discuss…that.

“It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with my dear. Why don’t you go take a nap while I speak to Papa?”

The ginger child narrowed her eyes, sensing that they were keeping something from her but scampered off to her make shift bedroom. While they had gone out, Magnus had also added a doll house and several other toys that would hopefully keep her occupied and distracted so that he and Alec could get some time to talk.

Once Clary was out of earshot, Alec filled Magnus in on what Izzie had told him about the warlock.

“Eda? Now why does that name sound familiar?”

Alec’s eyes flashed to Magnus at once. “You know her?”

“Not personally, no but I do believe that I may have heard of her from a friend of a friend. Warlocks do tend to circulate the same social circles most of the time for obvious reasons”.

“She’s apparently obsessed with having a baby of her own”.

“So much so that’s impregnated herself with a Mundane. Now I know more about this warlock, I suspect that she used the same magic on Clary but to a less extreme degree”.

“Are you saying that Clary’s stuck like this?” Alec stepped back with alarm on his handsome face.

“I’m not saying that at all, Alexander. If she’d ended up like the Mundane then yes, it would have been irreversible but thankfully she didn’t do more than make her a child and change her memories. The magic still worked the same way though by putting her into an earlier stage of life”.

Magnus watched his boyfriend visibly let out of a sigh of relief before sinking beside him on the sofa.

“What do you need to help you track her?”

“I’ll need something of personal value to Eda, which, unfortunately I don’t think will be so easy to procure”.

“Of course not. Since when was anything easy for us?!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an old contact of mine following her footprints so to speak and he happens to be one of the best warlock’s when it comes to magical tracking. Besides from myself of course but I could hardly go traipsing around the world and leave you here alone with young Clary”.

“No you couldn’t!” Alec agreed vehemently, not really sure how he would handle caring for a kid by himself. “I hope that we get something back soon before I have to deal with Jace’s brooding”. His boyfriend patted him sympathetically on the shoulder, also hoping that they wouldn’t end up with a sad Jace sleeping on their sofa in a week’s time. The blonde never did get along with his cats.


	3. Paternal Instincts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec discovers his paternal instincts and Clary is cute as ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update but how cute was the last episode of shadowhunters?! Alec is so good with kids ;)

**Chapter Three: Paternal Instincts**

 

 

They had just managed to set dinner out with Clary when a loud, insistent banging came from the front door. Magnus’ huffed, wondering why no one could just tap like civilised people instead of trying to punch down his door, and wandered over to it, peering through the peephole. He opened the door and was almost trampled down by Clary’s best friend Simon Lewis as he barged inside without so much as an ‘excuse me’.

“Where’s Clary? What happened?” he demanded as Alec came out of the kitchen and immediately sighed upon seeing the annoying nerdy vampire. “All Izzie would tell me is that a warlock cursed Clary. Is she okay?”

“Fray is just fine”, Alec spoke in a low voice, not wanting the girl in question to overhear the conversation. “She’s just indisposed at the moment”.

The shorter man’s eyebrows shot up. “Indisposed? What the hell does that mean exactly?”

“Daddy? Papa? What’s going on?” A small voice came from the doorway and everyone turned as Clary slipped into the room with innocent green eyes peering around. When they landed on Simon, she grinned. “Uncle Simon!” she ran up to him and threw her arms around his legs, not noticing the completely bewildered look on his face.

“This is what we meant, Steven”, Magnus explained as though he hadn’t figured that out for himself by this point. The vampire glared at him heatedly.

“It’s Simon, I know you know my name!”

“Uncle Simon, Daddy bought me a brand new doll house, do you want to see?”

“Maybe later. Uncle Simon needs to have a quick word with _daddy_ ”.

“Sweetie go eat your dinner, we’ll be with you soon”, Magnus patted her on the shoulder before giving a gentle push towards the kitchen. She reluctantly disappeared behind the door, leaving the three men to talk – or in Simon’s case practically yell.

“Okay, can one of you maybe explain what is going on here? And whose daddy in this scenario?!”

“I’m daddy, Alec’s papa”, Magnus shrugged. “And isn’t it obvious? Clary has been turned into a child and given new memories of a life of being raised by myself and Alexander”.

Simon gaped at him. “No, no that was not in fact obvious! How did she get new memories?”

“We don’t know. We’re still working that out”, Alec cut in, his voice conveying his irritation with the man’s presence. “We’re looking for the warlock. Her name’s Eda. If you really want to make yourself helpful Lewis then go talk to your downworlder buddies and see if anyone knows anything about her”.

“I can do that”, he agreed and then frowned as it occurred to him that kid Clary must be making things awkward for adult Jace. “How’s Jace handling it?”

“He’s handling it”, was all Alec would say on the matter.

“Maybe you should go before Clary begins to wonder what all the fuss is about”, Magnus suggested and before Simon could protest, opened a portal up in the room that sucked the vampire out of the apartment.

Alec looked at his boyfriend with amusement, his lips twitching into a smirk. “Where did you just send him?”

“Somewhere far away from here”.

 

* * *

 

The next few days were silent on the warlock front. However it didn’t mean that Alec and Magnus were any less busy, especially Alec. Between trying to run the Institute and take care of a child, it seemed like he barely got any alone time with his boyfriend and by day three, he began to take his mood out on his friends and subordinates.  He was in the middle of chewing out one of the Shadowhunters for making a minor screw up on a report when Clary popped up from out of nowhere. “Papa, look what I drew”, she tugged on his sleeve, bringing his tirade to an abrupt end to the other Shadowhunters relief. He looked curiously at the red haired girl, feeling like there was something familiar about her but when Alec sent a fierce glare his way while stepping in front of the kid and blocking his view of her, he quickly scurried away.

Alec turned back to Clary, forcing a softer expression on his face then he’d been wearing to scare off the Shadowhunter he’d caught staring at her, which had brought all his protective instincts to the forefront. The little girl was holding a piece of paper up at him and he took it front her, unfolding it carefully. Since Magnus had been called out by a friend of his, Alec had been forced to bring Clary to the Institute with him but Izzie had given her de-aged best friend some pencils and paper and left her to draw in her bedroom.

“Do you like it, papa?”

Alec looked at the drawing and felt a flicker of concern hit him as he took in the skilful drawing (even as a kid, Clary must have always had a natural talent for art) of the sliver haired, red eyed warlock dressed in the same purple dress that she had been wearing when they had faced her down. How had Clary remembered enough of her to draw her? “Hey Clare-Bear”, he bent down to meet her eyes, calling her by the nickname that he’d accidentally blurted out the previous day – which Magnus had smirked at him over – and it had stuck since then. “Wanna tell me who this is?”

Clary shrugged, not seeming to notice the worry radiating from her ‘Papa’. “She keeps appearing in my dreams sometimes so I decided to draw her”.

From what he recalled of the warlock, it was almost true to life. In fact, it could possibly be a huge help in the search for her since they didn’t have a lot of clear photos of her on record, if any. “Do you mind if I keep this?” he asked her and she smiled at him, believing that this meant that he liked her drawing.

“Sure, papa”.

Later, when Clary was tucked into bed after a few bedtime stories from her ‘daddy’, Alec showed Magnus the picture and explained that Clary had been dreaming of the warlock. Magnus frowned as they poured over the drawing. “There has to be a reason that Clary’s dreaming of her. If Eda wanted to erase Clary’s memory of her completely by given her a new set of memories then she would have done. No, Eda is seeping into Clary’s subconscious when she’s sleeping because she’s up to something. I’m not sure what though”.

Alec stared over at the door of Clary’s bedroom and felt suddenly pissed that Eda was still messing with her even after the mess she’d already created. “Are you saying she wants something from Clary?”

“Maybe…or maybe it’s for us. Perhaps she’s attempting to warn us from going after her”, Magnus suggested, though he didn’t sound entirely certain.

“We’re going to need help to keep Clary safe if we’re going to continue tracking her down”, he stated flatly, thinking that he had already failed Clary once and he wasn’t going to do it again, especially while she was so little and vulnerable. He thought of the way the little girl looked at him with big eyes so trusting as though she thought he could do anything and vowed that Eda wasn’t going to be going anywhere near her ever again.

“I can call Catarina”, Magnus suggested, referring to his old friend who worked at the hospital in New York and was also a warlock. She had also taken in a little girl, Madzie, who was a mini warlock and an orphan that Alec had discovered while investigating a different dark warlock with adult Clary. “She’ll be able to care for Clary and protect her while we go after Eda”.

“I’ll have Izzie join her”, Alec agreed, thinking that a little extra security wouldn’t hurt. “But first we need to find the bitch”.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile on the other side of New York, Eda rubbed her stomach as she sat in a cushy leather chair in her underground apartment. Nobody knew it even existed underneath a block of old, disused buildings and with a secret tunnel that led from the outside to the apartment underneath. She had cast many powerful wards to keep the place away from prying eyes or Shadowhunters and had locked herself away since escaping the pretty boy and his friends. There was absolutely no way that she would allow anyone to come between her and her daughter, the child that she had been longing for since she was only one hundred years old.

Relaxed in her comfy chair that she had procured some time ago from Italy, Eda muttered out the words to a spell that she had created to help her keep an eye on her enemies. She knew that she needed to keep a close eye on the Shadowhunters as they would be looking for her now that she was on their radar. Perhaps she shouldn’t have cursed the Fray girl but she had seen something in her that had reminded her of herself as a child. She hadn’t had the best childhood due to a mother who had been disgusted by her silver haired, demonic red eyed child and no father and felt a sort of kinship with red haired girl.  She could see people’s thoughts and memories, every single one they had ever had and had seen that Alec Lightwood would make a wonderful father as would Magnus Bane. She knew all about his thing for adopting strays.

A small bubble portal popped up in front of her, a one sided portal of course – so that it would only appear on her end and for her to look through, not actually walk through. The portal showed a fancy interior of an apartment and Eda smirked as she saw Alec and Magnus kissing on the sofa. Things were beginning to get interesting when a scream interrupted the moment and both men shot up and ran towards a closed door. They entered the makeshift bedroom for Clary and found her in tears, sobbing as she sat up in bed with her hair stuck to her sweaty forehead.

“Daddy, Papa”, she cried as the two men knelt down by her bed with worried looks.

“What happened Biscuit?” Magnus asked her softly.

“I dreamt of that scary warlock lady again. But she…she was hurting Papa. I was really scared and felt like I couldn’t move”.

Eda stiffened, surprised by this turn of events. When she had meddled with Clary’s memories, she had removed all traces of her from the girl’s mind and that should have included her subconscious. If she was beginning to remember her then that meant that everything she worked for, everything she had been accomplishing was put in jeopardy. The Shadowhunters weren’t dumb, in fact they were incredibly resourceful and they could use the child’s memory of her to track her down if they went through enough people especially with Magnus’ help.

“Well looks like I’m going to have make another appearance after all”, she huffed. “And here I was hoping to relax. Stress isn’t good for the baby” she stroked her stomach once again before disappearing into her personal library for the rest of the night to research anything that might be able to help her prevent Clarice from becoming a problem. She didn't want to hurt the girl but she would do what she had to when it came to protecting her own.

 

* * *

 

“I’m scared”, Clary cried which broke Alec’s heart when he saw her small chest begin to jerk as she hiccupped from crying so hard. “Please don’t leave me, Papa”.

“Papa’s right here and he’s not going anywhere”, Magnus promised her, stroking her red hair softly. “Would you like to sleep with us tonight, Princess?”

Clary nodded and Alec scooped her from the bed, gently picking her up into his arms.

“Alexander, you take Biscuit to the bedroom and I’ll get a mild calming draught to help her sleep”.

Alec nodded and carried the distraught child to the room he shared with Magnus and placed her under the covers before slipping in bedside her. Immediately she clung to him as though he was her own personal teddy bear but he didn’t mind. He would do anything to get her to stop sobbing the way she had been.

“You won’t let the bad lady hurt you, will you Papa?”

Alec swallowed as she lay her head onto his bare chest. “I’ll try not to, Clare-Bear”.

By the time Magnus joined the two of them, both Alec and Clary were fast asleep and there was no longer a need for the calming draught.  The warlock instead grabbed his cell phone and took a few flashless pictures of his boyfriend and Clary snuggled together asleep. After looking over the pictures with a smile, Magnus joined the pair in the bed and flung his arm across Clary and Alec before following into a deep sleep of his own.


	4. Warlock to Warlock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Clary have some bonding time. Magnus receives a visitor and an unexpected offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the slow update! I really love this story and I just keep getting sidetracked.  
> Thank you all for the kudos and the lovely comments :)

Chapter Four

“I’m sorry, Clary’s what?!”

Luke Galloway did a double take after Simon came storming into the restaurant, soaking wet through and declaring that Magnus had sucked him through a portal to a river, before dropping the bomb on him that Clary was now a little girl who thought that Magnus and Alec of all people were her parents.

“Do you want to run that by me again?” he stared at the vampire incredulously. If Clary had somehow been reverted to a kid, he was sure that one of the Shadowhunters would have dropped by and told him by now…wouldn’t they?

“I’m telling you, Luke, Clary is about five years old! She’s cute as hell but she’s a kid!” Simon waved his hands about frantically as he spoke as though that would emphasise how serious he was.

Luke scowled, feeling annoyed that it was Simon who had been left to tell him that something had happened to the girl who was like a daughter to him. “Hold on, how did this happen? And how come no one told me?”

“They barely told me anything before sucking me out of the apartment!” the younger man exclaimed, furious.

The wolf turned his back on Simon as he grabbed his cell phone from out of his pocket and he rung up Jace’s number. After a few rings, the blonde finally picked up. “Luke, what’s up?”

“When were you going to tell me that Clary’s somehow been returned to childhood?”

There was silence for a moment before Jace answered him. “This wasn’t something that we wanted getting out. We needed to keep this out of the Clave’s eyes and definitely away from anyone that might want to do Clary harm. I trust you, Luke, but no offense you’ve had problems with your pack in the past”. He was obviously referring to the small number of his wolves that had rebelled against him more than once and held a strong animosity towards Simon just for being a vampire.

“I understand but Clary should be with me. It’s what Jocelyn would have wanted”.

“No offense but you’re in no position to be taking in a kid, especially a shadowhunter kid”, Jace retorted. “Besides she has fake memories of Alec and Magnus being her dads and raising her. She doesn’t know you as a parental figure anymore and you’ll just be scaring her if you try to take her away”.

“Damn it, Jace. Those two better keep her safe”, Luke cursed while feeling insulted at his implication that he couldn’t handle little Clary. He didn’t argue though since if she really did have fake memories then he’d only make her nervous by trying to force her to live with him. “And I want constant updates. Do you know who did this to her?”

“We do and we’re working on tracking her down. Maybe you have some connections since the woman’s a warlock”.

“Do you have a name?”

“All we know is her name is Eda and she’s one of the most dangerous warlocks alive”.

“I’ll speak to my sources. See what I can find out”.

“Thanks Luke”.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Alec had left Clary with Magnus while he had gone over to the institute, hopefully to try and find out some more information about their elusive warlock and to see if any progress had been made in the search. Magnus had decided to take the little girl shopping for some new clothes as they had only managed to get her a few basics so far. He’d always imagined having a daughter and all the things that he would dress her up in and he wasn’t about to let the opportunity to have this with Clary pass him by.

“I love that dress, daddy!” Clary pointed out a cute blue summer dress that he thought would look absolutely adorable on her as well as flatter her red hair.

“Then we’ll add that to our pile”, he agreed and pulled one in her size off the rack and into the basket with the rest of the clothes that they’d already picked out. “What about this, Biscuit?” he found a little leather jacket that looked almost like a small replica of the one Alec wore. He thought it would look so cute on her especially if she wore it next to Alec in his own.

“I love it, it’s just like papa’s!” she grinned, sharing the same thoughts as he did. The rest of the trip went quickly and thankfully smoothly. They stopped off for a quick lunch and some ice-cream before he portalled them back to the apartment.

“Do you want to go put your new things away, sweetie?” he asked her and since she was a surprisingly agreeable child, she nodded and beamed as she took her bags to her bedroom. Despite having night terrors, Clary was a wonderfully sunny child and it made Magnus feel sad for the trauma that older Clary had to go through that had affected that infectious sunniness.

Magnus turned around to head towards the kitchen to make some coffee only to almost jump at the sight of a silver haired, red eyed warlock standing right behind him. “Ahh…you must be Eda I assume?”

“Magnus Bane, it’s so good to finally meet you in person. I’ve heard a lot of things about you”, she smiled at him, flashing a set of perfectly white teeth that must have been maintained with the help of magic. No one had teeth that white.

“If you’re here for Clary then I’m afraid you’ll have to go through me and I think you’ll find me a harder challenge than Alec or the others”.

As if to prove what he was saying was truthful, Magnus waved his hands and produced a shield that he knew would be impenetrable…except if her magic was stronger than his, which might cause a problem.

“No need for the dramatics, Mr Bane. I’m only here to make an offer that you can’t refuse”, Eda smiled at him as one would smile at a ridiculous child. He felt his hackles rise at the look but dropped the shield though he kept his guard up since he wasn’t completely stupid.

“What do you want? Just get to the point and skip the monologue, if you will. I’ve heard more than enough monologues for my lifetime thank you very much”.

“I’m here to offer you this”, Eda pulled out a purple vial from the satchel that she was carrying and threw it to him. He gracefully caught it, eying it with suspicion. “This is a potion that will make the effects of my magic permanent for Clary. If you give her one sip of this, she will remain you and Alec’s daughter forever. It will not be reversible”.

“And why the hell would you think that we’d want that?” Magnus stared at her incredulously. “Clarice, as adorable as she is, isn’t our child and I imagine Jace wants his girlfriend back to normal at some point”.

“Ooh but I see your thoughts. You’ve always wanted a little girl, wanted children and you’ve grown quite attached to little Clary. So has Alec. He already feels extremely protective of the girl. Nothing like his relationship with the older Clarice. You give her this bottle and you will never have to give her up, never have to struggle with the pain of losing a child. Trust me, that sort of pain…I wouldn’t wish it on anyone”.

Magnus looked into Eda’s pain filled eyes and realised that she was probably thinking of her own children that she had lost. He thought of the way Clary looked at him and Alec and knew that it would hurt when she didn’t look at him them like that anymore. It would be painful when she returned to normal after all the time they will have spent with her, having already giving her a place in their hearts and it hadn’t even been that long, but as tempting as it was to keep her like this forever, it would be wrong.

“Just what exactly is it that you will get from giving Clary this potion?” he demanded as the question popped into his head. “Excuse me for saying but you don’t seem like the type to do something from the goodness of your heart”.

“I know she has been remembering me and that was not part of my plans. Her memory should be completely erased of me but it’s not. This is putting my plans into jeopardy but if you give Miss Fray this potion then her mind will be completely reset with no more nightmares and no more memories of myself leaking into her subconscious at night”.

Magnus found it interesting that Clary was breaking through the memory block all on her own which shouldn’t be possible. He decided to file that away to think about later and to discuss with Alec who had thought Eda was doing it on purpose. “Sorry, Eda, I hate to burst your bubble and risk all of those plans of yours but I’m going to have to say no to your generous offer”.

Eda narrowed her red eyes at him, clearly having expected him to take her up on her offer. “Don’t be stupid, Magnus. This is your only chance to be a family with Alec and Clary like I know you want deep down. Don’t turn me down”.

“Sorry but some of us have actual morals”, he retorted flippantly.

“I will find some other way to take care of Clarice. Mark my words, Magnus”.

He glared at her as she created a portal and vanished before he could even conjure up a blast of magic to hit her with. Alec was not going to be happy that Eda had stopped by and Magnus hadn’t thought to call him. He also still held the vial of potion in his hands.

 

* * *

 

“Wait. What do you mean that Eda came here?”

As soon as Alec came home from the Institute, he’d been bombarded by Clary who had insisted on modelling her new clothes for him, especially the matching leather jacket. Once she had disappeared back into her room to draw for a while, Magnus had immediately filled his partner in on the latest turn of events. The dark haired shadowhunter stared at him in disbelief, seemingly having a hard time digesting the sheer gall of the warlock for inviting herself into their home.

“She showed up and offered me this”, he passed Alec the purple vial that Eda had left behind. “Apparently it will make Clary remain a child forever with all her current memories replacing her real ones”.

“Meaning she’ll be ours forever”, Alec stated. “Why would she want that?”

“Because Eda found out somehow that Clary is remembering her and for some reason, she doesn’t want that. I assume it’s for the same reason that she put on a memory charm on herself so I couldn’t remember what she looked like after she left. I do recall all our interactions including the fact that she threatened to find a different way to ‘deal with Clary’”.

Alec’s expression turned stony. “For a warlock obsessed with children, she doesn’t mind hurting one?”

“Apparently not. Not if she’s protecting her own”, Magnus explained. “This does mean that we’re going to need to keep on guard”.

“I’m always on guard”, he retorted, getting up from the sofa. “I’m going to go check on Clary. If this warlock can get in here, I don’t like the idea of her by herself in her room”.

“You may be right. I should put some protections up”.

Magnus headed over to his office as Alec wandered to Clary’s room. He opened his spell book and immediately looked up as many defensive and offensive protections as possible. By the time he was done, Magnus wanted his apartment to be the magical equivalent of the first home alone movie. If Eda had the nerve to turn up here again, he was going to ensure she’d been in for a few surprises or several.


End file.
